Jairam Ramesh's latest mantra: No toilet, no bride

Jaipur, Oct 22: Union Minister for Rural Development and Sanitation Jairam Ramesh seems to be determined to provide toilets to all women in India. His zeal and commitment towards sanitation issues can be seen in his latest advice to women, mostly rural women, who hardly have toilets inside their house.

Ramesh on Sunday, Oct 21 urged women not to get married into families which do not have toilets in their homes.

"Don't get married in a house where there is no toilet," Ramesh said while addressing locals, majority of whom were women, at Khajuri village near Kota and cited a slogan "No toilet, no bride".

"You consult the astrologers about rahu-ketu (planetary positions) to know about the suitability of stars before getting married. You should also look whether there is a toilet at your groom's home before you decide to get married," he said.

He also said that those who defecate in open should be arrested. "Two crore passengers travel daily from railways. 50,000 coaches run on tracks daily. There are four toilets in one coach. If any person is found defecating in open, he would be punished severely," Ramesh said.

Ramesh also launched the third edition of Nirmal Bharat Yatra at Sangod, a small town, in Kota district.

Launching the Yatra, he also cited a slogan, "No toilet, no bride", coined by the Haryana government to promote sanitation there.

Earlier, the senior Congress leader had stirred a controversy by saying that India needs toilets and not temples. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took offence of his statement and said that Ramesh had hurt the feelings of Hindu community.

Nearly half of India defecates in the open but at the same time more than 63 per cent have access to either a landline or a mobile phone. The startling figures were part of Household Amenities Census 2011, released earlier this year.